Matterhorn: Vol. 1. The World Began Without Man…
The Great Redneck Hope spent the last decade entertain audiences with what Decibel Magazine termed “Tech-metal [for] snobs.” But with a new decade so comes a new band name and new album, The Great Redneck Hope releases their first album as Matterhorn.
Matterhorn’s debut album, Vol. 1. The World Began Without Man…, is somewhere between a full length and an EP. The album contains only five tracks but clocking in at 30 minutes makes it pretty close to a full length. In general, breaking the album into tracks seems like a superfluous task; the album plays like one giant 30 minute instrumental metal opus.
I use the word metal loosely when discussing Matterhorn because the album has a certain evolution that leads it from a brutal metal beginning to more tame waters. By the fourth track, “Stage Four: The South Atlantic Anomaly.” the band is making instrumental rock somewhere between 90s alternative music and instrumental rock bands like The Cancer Conspiracy. The result is something that is oddly soothing which I suppose is only really odd because the album is being marketed as a metal album.
Overall, I really like Matterhorn. It is not at all what I expected when I heard I would be reviewing a metal album today. The album is full of technically proficient guitar work and interesting song constructions; Decibel was pretty dead on, it is music for tech metal snobs.
Rating: 8.3/10
MP3: Matterhorn “Stage Four: The South Atlantic Anomaly.”
Buy: iTunes
Matterhorn: Vol. 1. The World Began Without Man…
